Ex-union official gets probation in Donovan case

NEW HAVEN — A former labor union official was sentenced to three years of probation Monday in a scandal involving nearly $28,000 in illegal contributions to former state House Speaker Christopher Donovan’s failed congressional campaign last year.

A federal judge in New Haven ordered Harry Ray Soucy, 61, of Naugatuck to serve the first six months of probation in a halfway house and fined him $5,000.

One of eight people convicted in the case, Soucy pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud and conspiracy to cause false statements to the Federal Election Commission and to defraud the United States.

Donovan was not charged and denied wrongdoing, but his aides acknowledged that the scandal derailed his congressional campaign.